Like-for-like retail sales fell one per cent last month compared to 12 months earlier, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

The organisation said total sales, including the effect of new shops opening, were up just 0.7 per cent compared with a 4.4 per cent increase in February 2013.

By category, home furnishing did the quickest business last month, followed by furniture and flooring.

But online retail sales continued their unstoppable march and web sales of non-food products climbed 14.3 per cent last month compared to 12 months previous.

BRC director general Helen Dickinson said the figures might not be as bad as they appear, given comparisons to particularly strong periods in the retail calendar.

She said: “This slower growth might have been expected in some ways, given the record sales figures we saw in January and the strong results that we are comparing against from last year.

“If they were taken together, the figures from the last three months show a 2.8 per cent average growth in the retail industry, a modest increase on the 12 month average.”